New York City’s Fulton Center Subway Complex

Of the many things subway-riding New Yorkers never expect to see—a clean surface and a smiling ticket agent, notwithstanding—a ray of sunlight may be the least expected. Until now, that is—when riders taking a trip through the sparkling Fulton Center can expect to see a thick swathe of sunlight streaming down from the city’s streets, two — Continue reading …

Of the many things subway-riding New Yorkers never expect to see—a clean surface and a smiling ticket agent, notwithstanding—a ray of sunlight may be the least expected. Until now, that is—when riders taking a trip through the sparkling Fulton Center can expect to see a thick swathe of sunlight streaming down from the city’s streets, two floors above. A decade in the making, and at a cost of 1.4 billion dollars, the former Fulton Street station, irretrievably battered during the September 11, 2001 attacks, has risen from the ashes as Fulton Center, a sparkling convergence of 9 subway lines, designed and realized by a consortium of firms—headed by the architectural practice, Grimshaw, and the engineering and planning company, Arup. As if a massive, spanking clean, wildly convenient subway complex weren’t enough for harried urbanites, Fulton Center has a central architectural wow to recommend it—thanks to a glass oculus and a “Sky Reflector-Net” that funnels daylight down through a swirling tunnel and geometric laticework of cable wire, to the darkness below—a design element so singularly photogenic, we’re already primed for a whole slew of new Instagram hashtags. Via Gothamist